For the better
by Bob1097
Summary: It's funny how people aren't always what they seem. This is Dallas realizing another side of himself because of Cherry.


**I thought I was done with these oneshots but I had to write this one, it was bugging me. It feels in the blank for Dally and Cherry in my Brown Eyed Girl story.**

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It's funny how people aren't always what they seem. I mean look at a crazy murderer, sure he might be a crazed killer, but he could also be a genius who loves babies. People are odd like that. This is the story of how I found the other side of me. I'm not saying I was a mad man turned baby lover, but this is how I went from hate to love. My name is Dallas Winston, and this is my story.

It started the night I saw Johnny die. He didn't really die, but I thought he had. Everyone knew it was coming but that didn't make it any easier. For the first time in my life I said a prayer that night. It must have worked because Johnny made it, I almost didn't. I had another first that night. I guess I hadn't ever prayed because I didn't want to get let down by the highest power known to man, I figured if I never asked him for anything he couldn't reject me. That's what people have always seemed to do in my life. I can't remember anybody ever loving me and after seventeen years of that I thought I was pretty tough.

I had a shell a mile thick. Most of it was my own creation, not all of it, but definitely most of it. Somehow Johnny had worked his way to the inside of those walls not long after we met. Maybe it was the way he looked at me the way a little cold puppy looks in your front door. Nobody ever told him they loved him either but instead of it making him hate everybody the way it did me, it made him want to love everybody. It's strange how people are different. When I thought he died I knew no one would ever love me again. It was like someone took a sledge hammer and started busting down my walls from the inside. I didn't like that vulnerable feeling. That night was the only time I have ever wimped out on anything, but I couldn't take living anymore. I knew I was more broken than I had ever been and I wasn't ever going to be any good in life so I tried to cut it short, check out early if you know what I mean. It didn't work though, obviously.

And Johnny didn't die, I'm glad he never asked why I did it; I don't think I could have told him the truth. But that one act of weakness made me realize Johnny wasn't the only one who cared it's funny how I missed it all that time by just being an ass.

There was this girl right? Now I have been with a lot of girls, most of them were just prolonged one night stands that were only good for one thing, and I'm sure you can guess what that was. But this girl was different, she hadn't ever put out in her life, she was….. Well, square. Not my type. But there I was lying on the hospital bed after they took that bullet out of me and she walked in behind Lucy. She looked like she had been crying, and I mean why not, her boyfriend had just been killed. She was probably disappointed that I hadn't died, what with an eye for and eye and all.

I guess my sarcastic mouth kind of got away with me when she walked in. I was just tired of people looking at me like that.

"What are you doin' here sweetheart? Come to see me on my death bed? I hate to break it to ya, but they say I'm gonna make it." I said it as hurtful as I could.

I was always trying to hurt people as must as I was hurt, I wanted them to feel hated too. I don't know why, she was actually pretty cute, and I didn't really have anything against her other than she was a Soc and I hated them all on principle.

When I said it she started crying again and took off. Good riddance, somehow I had thought Cherry had more gumption than that, I thought she would be one tough girl inside, but I guess she wasn't after all. I was mad that Lose had brought her when I was already feeling so low. But she told me it had been Cherry's idea; I mean what did she want to see me for anyway besides maybe to slap my face for talking dirty to her?

Lose got a little snippy with me. I wasn't use to that, people didn't usually just come out and tell me I was a hatful ass, but she did. Well I don't think that was her exact words, but that's what it boiled down to. She said I was cold. It was true, I guess a life time of hating everyone doesn't really make you warm and fuzzy inside.

I went to jail after that. I guess they thought I was finally old enough. I acted tough and like I didn't care, I guess I knew it was coming someday. I was just that kind, no good. That's why it came as such a surprise that day they called me for a visitor and it was Cherry. She was the very last person I expected. My buddies had come but no one else.

Talking to her was easy, I found out she cared. Not like the rest of the gang, she actually loved me, like she was in love with me. I couldn't say anything after that but I won't ever forget what she said to me.

I came out and sat down at the table she was at. It was only her and me and a cop in the room. She looked out of place and I knew it was her first time seeing the inside of a jail. I knew how she must have felt because I remember the first time I saw one. I was just a kid and I had gone to see my dad.

"Hi." She said quietly so I had to listen very close to hear her.

I didn't really know what to say to her. I didn't ever get nervous, ever. But she made me that way. I didn't even feel like being sarcastic. I was genuinely curious about why she was there, and I was glad she had come to see me. I felt calm just sitting there with her, except I had a weird feeling in my stomach, I think other people would call it butterflies, but I'm not the kind of guy who gets butterflies.

"Hi" I said, I didn't know what to say to her, I didn't want to run her off, it was nice to see a friendly face especially such a pretty one.

We sat there and didn't speak, it felt like a long time but I guess that was because it was so quiet.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

Her face broke into a smile, I loved it. I wanted to touch it, her face I mean. I didn't know why.

"I don't know, Dallas. I just felt like I should see you. I haven't been sleeping well lately, I have been thinking about you a lot. I can't get you out of my head." She said still talking quietly, and she was looking down at her hands folded on the table.

I guess she didn't want to look me in the face when she confessed. I couldn't blame her, I couldn't have said that to anybody, let alone look them in the face when I did it. I couldn't answer her back. I didn't know what she meant; it couldn't be like it sounded. So we sat there being silent even longer.

"Look Dallas, I'm in love with you, and I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should even tell you. But I think you are better than you think. So I'm going to wait, being in here you will have a good chance to think. You can look me up when you get out." She said, and at the end of her speech she looked up at me.

I was taken aback, shocked even. She started standing up and knew I had to stop her. What she said was like something giving me another chance. I had to be a man, a real man. I laid my hand on her's on the table. Her hand was so soft and it was the first time I had noticed how rough mine were. She stopped and looked down at my hand. I was looking at it too. I felt like all the air in the world had been sucked out and I was suffocating. I wanted to lunge at her and squeeze her as tight as I could and not let her leave. I guess I really was being a man because I didn't, and it wasn't like me to use any amount of self-control.

"Will you come back to see me?" I asked, I wasn't looking at her, I was looking at our hands but then I latched onto my courage and looked at her face.

She smiled at me and I felt warm inside, it was the butterflies. She nodded and then left.

That was the day I fell in love. After that I straightened up. She had a lot to do with that. I had been right in the beginning, she was tough but I guess everybody had a breaking point. I happened to be her's. She was my turning point, not my breaking point.

After her I was happy, I didn't hate the world. I took pride in who I was. I was still Dallas Winston, and now I was in love. I still acted tough but now it was just that though, and act. I think people saw through it though. I guess you could say I got a happy ending. I married Cherry, and ever though I didn't say so, I was happy.

It is funny how one pretty little girl can change your whole world, and for the better.

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**So what do you think? Should I leave it a oneshot, or make it a branch off from Brown Eyed Girl?**


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